Day 1 (Monday)
3 Kingdoms (1 Kings) 18:1-47 (Elijah Comes Back)
Last time, we saw Elijah sent by God to Ahab, to proclaim a drought, making an open show of the weakness of Baal, the false god Ahab had begun to worship. During the years of this drought, Elijah was sheltered in the home of a widow, where the Lord sustained them miraculously despite the famine and drought, and where Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead. This time, we will see what happens when Elijah is sent back to Ahab.
Elijah’s Message to Ahab
18 After many days the word of the Lord came to Eli′jah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Eli′jah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samar′ia. 3 And Ahab called Obadi′ah, who was over the household. (Now Obadi′ah revered the Lord greatly; 4 and when Jez′ebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadi′ah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)
5 And Ahab said to Obadi′ah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys; perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” 6 So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadi′ah went in another direction by himself.
7 And as Obadi′ah was on the way, behold, Eli′jah met him; and Obadi′ah recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Eli′jah?” 8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Eli′jah is here.’” 9 And he said, “Wherein have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?”
10 “As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom whither my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. 11 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Eli′jah is here.”’”
12 “And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you whither I know not; and so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth. 13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jez′ebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?”
14 “And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Eli′jah is here”’; and he will kill me.” 15 And Eli′jah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So Obadi′ah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Eli′jah.
17 When Ahab saw Eli′jah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Ba′als. 19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Ba′al[a] and the four hundred prophets of Ashe′rah, who eat at Jez′ebel’s table.”
543 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should note that we might have the impression that Elijah was hiding from Ahab in order to escape the king’s anger, as though God couldn’t or wouldn’t protect him. But if that were the case, then God would not send him back to Ahab at this point, and this gives us an insight into what is actually happening with this period without rain. This is, like the plagues in Egypt, an opportunity for Ahab to repent, to see that the storm god Ba’al, whom he had chosen for his god, was not in fact the master of the weather. Ahab had rejected Yahweh the God of Israel, the Most-High Creator and Ruler of all, in favor of this false god who claimed dominion of the weather…and he (and all Israel with him) are being shown, in real time, that Ba’al’s claims are lies, and he could not grant fertility to the crops. Elijah is therefore hidden from Ahab to keep Ahab from destroying his opportunity for repentance…and now, as the time of decision arrives, Elijah is sent back to Ahab. We should be remembering God’s patience with Pharaoh in Egypt at this point…and next week, we will see the confrontation arrive.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
6) “What is the a) literal, b) allegorical, c) moral/ethical, d) anagogical/eschatological meaning of this text? (Think of these questions as a mountain which we can ascend, or as layers of meaning upon which we can reflect. Oftentimes, as we reflect upon a text in this way, we may find that the highest level, the anagogical reading (in which we see the text as revealing the glory of God and His kingdom in a deeper manner, opening up to us the grand scope of God’s great work of salvation in and for us) sheds new insights on the lower levels of interpretation.)
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Letter of St. Ignatius to the Ephesians – 1
Now that we have read the Didache, we’ll take the chance this summer to read another piece of early Christian writing, from the letters of St. Ignatios of Antioch. St. Ignatios was the bishop of Antioch in the period just after the Apostles; he was himself a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and possibly of Sts. Peter and Paul as well. During the reign of the Emperor Trajan, between A.D. 98 and 117, he was arrested and tried, and when he refused to renounce Christ before the Emperor himself, he was condemned to death by wild beasts in Rome, since the emperor didn’t want to martyr him in his own city, but in a distant and humiliating obscurity far away. During the long journey to Rome, as he passed through the cities of Asia Minor, he was visited by delegations from several of the churches in that region, and in turn he wrote letters to several of them, as well as a letter to the Church in Rome. These letters have been preserved in the Church since that time, and give us a priceless glimpse of the life of the Church in the first decades of the 2nd century. We will be reading his letter to the Ephesians.
Salutation
Ignatius the God-bearer to the church at Ephesus in Asia, blessed with greatness through the fullness of God the Father, predestined before the ages for lasting and unchangeable glory forever, united and elect through genuine suffering by the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ our God, a church most worthy of blessing: heartiest greetings in Jesus Christ and in blameless joy.
Thanks for Visit and Assistance
I welcomed in God your well-beloved name, which you possess by reason of your righteous nature, characterized by faith in and love of Christ Jesus our Savior. Being imitators of God, once you took on new life through the blood of God you completed perfectly the task so natural to you. For when you heard that I was on my way from Syria in chains for the sake of our shared name and hope, and was hoping through your prayers to succeed in fighting with wild beasts in Rome – in order that by so succeeding I might be able to be a disciple – you hurried to visit me.
Since, therefore, I have received in God’s name your whole congregation in the person of Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love who is also your earthly bishop, I pray that you will love him in accordance with the standard set by Jesus Christ and that all of you will be like him. For blessed is the one who has graciously allowed you, worthy as you are, to have such a bishop.
Now concerning my fellow servant Burrhus, who is by God’s will your deacon, blessed in every respect, I pray that he may remain with me both for your honor and the bishop’s. And Crocus also, who is worthy of God and of you, whom I received as a living example of your love, has refreshed me in every way; may the Father of Jesus Christ likewise refresh him, together with Onesimus, Burrhus, Euplus, and Fronto, in whom I saw all of you with respect to love.
May I always have joy in you – if, that is, I am worthy. It is proper, therefore, in every way to glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, so that you, joined together in a united obedience and subject to the bishop and the council of presbyters, may be sanctified in every respect.
387 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should note that we see Ignatius present himself as a man facing death as a test, a trial, a completion of a life lived in faithfulness to Jesus Christ. He calls himself the God-bearer, and does not come across as a man who is afraid of death, but rather as a man who is intent on finishing his chosen course well, but also is concerned about the well-being of those he leaves behind. He is writing to this church to encourage them to be faithful themselves, and giving them specific instructions in how to do so. One final point – the bishop of Ephesus, Onesimus, is one of the many disciples of St. Paul that are named in the New Testament, which emphasizes for us the closeness of this time to that of the Apostles, as not only Ignatius himself, but many of the other leaders of the Church in Asia Minor and throughout the world, would have been themselves catechized and baptized by the Apostles.)
2) What do we learn about God in this reading?
3) What do we learn about human beings in this reading?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
Luke 11:1-28 (Lord’s Prayer, Perseverance in Prayer, Jesus & Beelzebul, Return of the Unclean Spirit, True Blessedness)
Last time we read the parable of the Good Samaritan and saw Jesus visit Martha and Mary. As we move forward in St. Luke’s Gospel, we leave that sequence behind and see Jesus and his disciples in what appear to be several unrelated “scenes” in this chapter. Broadly, however, this chapter deals with prayer and with the problem of demons.
The Lord’s Prayer
11 He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread; 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.”
Perseverance in Prayer
5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”
9 “And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Jesus and Beelzebul
14 Now he was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Be-el′zebul, the prince of demons”; 16 while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven.
17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Be-el′zebul. 19 And if I cast out demons by Be-el′zebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; 22 but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. 23 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
The Return of the Unclean Spirit
24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
True Blessedness
27 As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Reading 25
655 word
Discussion Questions
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should point out the examples that Jesus gives of prayer, of people who pester and bother others to get what they need. The point isn’t that God doesn’t want to answer our prayers, but that we need to be persistent, and truly seek the mercy and grace of God, in order to be able to receive the good gifts that He gives to us. The final point about demons, the story about the “return of the unclean spirit,” explains clearly why, when we fast, we need to also pray and fill our minds and hearts with godly things. If we make a space in our lives, and don’t fill it with good things, other things will rush in to fill that vacuum. But if we fill our lives with the things of the Lord, we will always be safe from unclean spirits.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here? (He doesn’t work in the way that we expect, and He doesn’t care if we know the right answer if we don’t LIVE the right answer).
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us? (We have a very hard time not getting completely mixed up and confused in how we are supposed to follow God).
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this story make you think that you need to change anything in your life? (Hopefully everyone sees that Jesus isn’t just asking us to be “good people.” He wants us to actively and truly follow Him, to be radically changed, to be transformed. That involves doing “good things,” but will as often involve living in a way that drives the people around us nuts, not least because even in living in that way, it will condemn them for their failure to actually follow Jesus).
6) “What is the a) literal, b) allegorical, c) moral/ethical, d) anagogical/eschatological meaning of this text? (Think of these questions as a mountain which we can ascend, or as layers of meaning upon which we can reflect. Oftentimes, as we reflect upon a text in this way, we may find that the anagogical reading, in which we see the text as revealing the glory of God and His kingdom in a deeper manner, sheds new insights on the lower levels of interpretation.)
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